Music Appreciation and Composers

I love the Charlotte Mason method of studying composers. You study one per term, three per year. It allows one to fully explore the composer in question: to get used to his style, his music. My children, however, are quick to judge and easily bored. Listening to the same composer for 14 weeks would be torture to them, I expect.

So, instead, we will study one every three weeks over the next year. (That's also the same schedule for our artists' study).

According to the Well-Trained Mind, we should have already worked through The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten one double page spread per week with music selection. Check out this site for a taste: Classics for Kids. Our library doesn't have a copy of the book plus CD. Which may explain why we haven't done this yet.

Then, the children should read through The Story of the Incredible Orchestra: An Introduction to Musical Instruments and he Symphony Orchestra. Put dates on time-line.

Finally, the children ought to read through Understanding Music. After completing each section, they should write a brief one or two sentence summary of the information and, again, put dates on a time line.

THEN the student is prepared to "study" composers.

...whenever the student encounters a great composer in her history reading, she should jot down the name. During music appreciation, she should record the birth and death dates on the time line, read a brief biography [and create a "biographical page" for the history notebook], and spend the rest of her music appreciation period listening to the composer's works. p. 34, WTM, 2004

So, here they are, arranged chronologically, to correlate ever so roughly with Story of the World, Vol. 3, Early Modern Times.

These selections are from the wonderful CM site, Ambelside Online. (In fact, the whole thing is from AO, I just copied and pasted it in chronological order).


Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695, Baroque)
Listening selections for this term:
Selections based on the CD "Essential Purcell" from the Hyperion label. Available from amazon.com Barnes and Noble


Johann Sebastain Bach (1730) (Baroque)
Listening selections for this term:
Magnificat in D (4 weeks)
Chaconne (2 weeks) look for this played by Jascha Heifetz on YouTube
any Church cantata (2 weeks)
Brandenburg Concerto no. 6 (2 weeks)
Art of the Fugue (2 weeks) look for Contrapunctus 9 played by Nageeb Gardizi, and then on organ, on YouTube


Antonio Vivaldi (1730) (Baroque)
Listening selections for this term:
Gloria (choral work);
The Four Seasons;
Trio Sonata in C major, RV.82;
plus 3 concerti - Maybe one for violin, one for guitar and
one for a woodwind instrument such as oboe or bassoon.

George Frideric Handel (1750) (Baroque)
Listening selections for this term:
Messiah (an oratorio) (4 weeks)
Water music
Any of the organ concerti (such as Organ Concerto in B-flat Major, op. 7,no. 6)
Rinaldo (opera)
Harmonious Blacksmith (from suite in E major)


Franz Josef Haydn (1780) (Classical)
Listening selections for this term:
String Quartet Op 76 no 3 "Emperor" OR String Quartet Op 76 no 4 "Sunrise" (2 weeks)
London Symphony no 104 (4 weeks)
The Creation (4 weeks)
a horn concerto (2 weeks)


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1785) (Classical/Roccoco) (This term may change in the future - next rotation, 2012)
Listening selections for this term:
Piano Concerto 20 (2 weeks)
Symphony 40 (4 weeks)
Quintet in A maj for clarinet (2 weeks)
Piano Sonata in A maj K.331 (2 weeks)
Concerto for bassoon and orchestra in B-flat major, K. 191 (the only bassoon concerto he wrote)

2011-2012 TERM 1 (This term's artist is Jean Honore Fragonard, Rococo style) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (early classical)
Listening selections for this term:
Eine Kleine Nacht Musik
Requiem [A Vocal work]
Symphony no. 41 in C major (Jupiter)
Sinfonia Concertante
Piano Concerto no. 21 in C major (K.467)

Ludwig von Beethoven (1810) (Classical/Romantic) this term subject to change
Listening selections for this term:
1. Symphony 5 OR 6
2. Piano Sonata 14 (Moonlight, Opus 27) OR 8 (Pathetique, Opus 13)
3. Razumovsky String Quartets Opus 59, no 1-3 OR Septet in E-flat Opus 20
4. Piano Concerto 5 (Emperor, Opus 73)
5. Symphony 7 OR 9 (Opus 125)
6. Fidelio
Options are offered for those who did Beethoven with us in 1999 and would like some new music this term.)

Franz Schubert (1823) (Late Classical/Early Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Trout quintet
Symphony no. 8 ("Unfinished")
Symphony no. 9 ("The Great") (2 weeks)
Impromptus op. 90 (D. 899)
Die schone Mullerin (a song cycle)


Frederic Chopin (1840) (Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Op 09 no 2 Nocturne in E flat maj
Op 10 no 3 Etude in E-maj
Op 10 no 12 Revolutionary Etude in C minor
Op 21 Piano Concerto number 2 in f minor
Op 28 Preludes no's 15, 20 and either 16 or 17
Op 53 Polonaise in A flat, Heroic


Felix Mendelssohn (1840) (Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Songs without words
Violin Concerto in E minor
Symphony no. 4 in A major (Italian) (4 weeks)
Octet in E-flat major
Fingal's Cave ("Hebrides") Overture


Robert Schumann (1848) (Early Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Carnaval (for piano)
Scenes from Childhood for piano
Symphony no 1 in B flat Op 38 "Spring"
Symphony no 2 in C Op 61
an arabeske or humoreske
Liederkreis or other song cycle
Lorraine N. collected some resources - biographies, free and pay downloads of the term's music and posted it to the AO email list.


Camille Saint-Saens and Hector Berlioz (1850) (Early Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Saint-Saens - Symphony no 3 in C min
Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre
Saint-Saens - Carnaval of Animals (Le Carnaval des Animaux in French)
Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique
Berlioz - Dance of the Sylphs
Berlioz - Rakoczy March from the Damnation of Faust


Franz Liszt (1855) (Early Romantic)
Listening selections for this term:
Piano Concerto no 1
Hungarian Rhapsodies (esp no 2)
Les Preludes
Liebestraum for piano
Piano Sonata in B min
Mephisto Waltz


Antonin Dvorak (1888) (AN-toe-NEEN d-VOR-zhak) 1841-1904, Late Romantic
Listening selections for this term:
Symphony 9 From the New World
Slavonic Dances
Carnaval Overture (may also be spelled Karneval)
Humoresques for piano
Quartet in F maj ("American")
Trio in E min ("Dumky")
Recordings of these pieces may be available at public libraries. If your local branch doesn't have them, ask for them through interlibrary loan. You should also be able to find many used copies available at local used bookstores or Internet sites such as www.half.com or www.ebay.com.